NEW YORK: The National Hockey League is back in business after owners and players signed a memorandum of understanding on Saturday to end the lockout that wiped out more than half the season.
The NHL wasted no time in releasing a schedule for the shortened season, in which each team will play 48 games.
Twenty-six of the league’s 30 teams will play when the action begins on January 19. The regular season will conclude on April 27 with the Stanley Cup playoffs starting three days later.
Training camps were due to open Sunday.
The NHL Players Association had announced earlier Saturday that its members had voted to ratify a new contract, days after NHL owners had unanimously approved the tentative deal.
But the official end of the lockout, which started in September and cost more than half of the season originally slated to begin in October, wasn’t announced until representatives of both sides had signed the written memorandum of understanding laying out the key issues in the new deal.
The new accord will last for 10 years, with an opt-out clause after eight.
The players’ share of hockey-related income will fall from 57 percent to a 50 percent with the owners also getting 50 percent.
The salary cap for the upcoming season will also reportedly be $70.2 million with a minimum payroll of $44 million. The salary cap will drop to $64.3 million for the 2013-14 season.
The contract dispute has cost the NHL more than half of a season that was originally slated to begin in October.
But with the agreement they avoid losing an entire season to labor woes for the second time.
A similar bitter dispute over finances wiped out all of the 2004-05 campaign.
Now a league needing to win back fans disenchanted by the lockout, the NHL plans to open with a bang next weekend.
The defending champion Los Angeles Kings, who beat the New Jersey Devils in a six-game Stanley Cup Finals last June, will raise their banner before an afternoon game against Chicago.

Another playoff rematch highlighting the first day of play will be the Pittsburgh Penguins visiting the Philadelphia Flyers.

What's happening around Saudi Arabia

ALKHOBAR: A power failure at the King Fahd Causeway on Wednesday night resulted in a massive traffic congestion, even as officials failed to explain the cause of the snag, local media reported.A power outage for 74 minutes on the link between the Kin...

JEDDAH: A female Saudi lawyer was able to get a stay order on a ruling by the general court in Jeddah that awarded custody of a two-year-old girl to her father. She successfully argued to get the court order reversed that gave custody back to the mot...

JEDDAH: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) said that combating harassment cases is part of its responsibility to promote Islamic values and morals in society.“Those harassing women will be brought to book,” s...

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RIYADH: The Saudi Blind Society (Kafif) has made all preparations for the three-day workshop for the blind to be held here next week and attended by delegates from various Asian countries.Mohammed bin Suleiman Al-Shuwaiman, Kafif director general, th...

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JEDDAH: Meat and poultry topped the list of food items seized by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) at the border crossings for violating the health standards in the last two months.Approximately 267,137 kg of unfit meat and poultry were reject...

JEDDAH: Many sponsors and workers of small companies are struggling to get a comparatively cheaper health cover for renewal of iqama (residential permit) as the insurance companies have stopped issuing the same.The passport department has made it com...

RIYADH: Police have detained 11 Indonesian nationals, who arrived in the holy city of Makkah for Umrah a few days back.The Indonesian Religious Affairs Ministry is working closely with the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah to assist the group of citizen...

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LONDON: Members of Osama Bin Laden’s family were among four people who died when a private jet crashed in Britain, Saudi Arabia’s embassy in London said on Saturday.The Saudi-registered plane plowed into a car auction site and burst into flames in so...

JEDDAH: Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Al Hamzi, director general of prisons, has sacked Brig. Ahmad Al Shahrani, director of Jeddah prisons, after the case of a video clip about prisoners taking heroin went viral, according to local media.Quoting informed source...